Bakkavor has become the subject of an ethical trading complaint, following months of strike action among employees at its Spalding factory.
Unite the union has made a formal complaint on behalf of its Spalding members to the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), which ensures compliance with international labour standards in the global supply chains of member companies.
Workers at the Lincolnshire factory have been on strike since September after rejecting Bakkavor’s offer of a 7.8% pay increase to its lowest-paid colleagues and 6.4% across all other grades.
In November, Bakkavor offered workers a £350 bonus to end the strike.
Despite the supply chain disruption, the manufacturer grew revenue by 4% to £2.2bn last year, with sales up 5.2% to £1.9bn in the UK.
According to Unite, Bakkavor has brought in “strike-breakers” from its other sites instead of engaging in “meaningful negotiations” with its Spalding staff.
“Bakkavor’s utter unwillingness to negotiate and to attempt to break a lawful strike has left Unite with no choice,” said Unite GM Sharon Graham.
“Not only are we telling their customers about their unethical behaviour, but we will be targeting any company that continues to do business with them,” she said.
Bakkavor CEO Mike Edwwards: “As highlighted in our trading update, Unite has failed to disrupt our business, despite their continued strike action in the face of a very strong and improved final offer that has been put on the table.
“As with their run of emotive and false claims - for example, disruption to Christmas food supply, ‘years of real term pay cuts’ and that ‘the majority of the workforce only earn 10p above the National Living Wage’ - their new tactic of claiming that we are breaching ethical trading regulations is also untrue.
“Over the past three years, CPI in the UK has grown by 21%: At our Spalding site over the same three-year period, the pay rate has risen by between 21.2% and 22.8% for colleagues - above inflation for the period.
“Furthermore, we think it useful to confirm as a matter of fact that the cost of labour at Spalding is the highest across all our UK sites - something that sits at the very heart of the problem with Unite’s position on this matter.
“Given our significant efforts to engage in meaningful negotiations and the strong offer we put forward, Unite’s ongoing calls for rejection made it obvious that the 2024 collective bargaining process was exhausted.
“Therefore, we lawfully proceeded to offer colleagues the proposed pay offer on an individual basis.”
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